


The Defeat, Epilogue

by lies_d



Series: The Defeat [2]
Category: Silicon Valley (TV)
Genre: Alien Invasion, Alien/Human Relationships, Alternate Universe - Alien Invasion, Dubious Consent, M/M, Post Mpreg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:48:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27184747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lies_d/pseuds/lies_d
Summary: Sequel to The Defeat. After the alien takeover of Earth, Jared and Richard still find themselves in close orbit to each other.
Relationships: Jared Dunn/Original Male Character(s), Jared Dunn/Richard Hendricks
Series: The Defeat [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1984354
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	The Defeat, Epilogue

_Richard_

Six years had passed before Richard saw Jared again. 

Richard was standing with his parents, looking down the clear deck of Earth Orbital Nine, watching the formation of the second Atlantic bridge. The nanites building it would be finished in less than a year. He himself was being retrained to program nanite hives, but he would never be allowed to design anything larger than a laptop. It was remarkable they were letting him learn the language at all. Remarkable that, in one interview, when they had asked him if he would rebel, he’d said no, and he’d been telling the truth, and they had known it. 

His nerves seemed to finally be working properly, after the last procedure they’d performed in the medical bay here. Anyone else might have been able to live with a mild tremor in their hands, but it had slowed down his coding and that he could not stand.

He heard Jared’s voice. He couldn’t make out any words, just the tone and timbre of it. Like the sound of a musical instrument he hadn’t heard in years. Then he turned away from his parents to look towards the place they were staring. 

Jared stepped away from one of the elevators, in the company of another man and a young boy. Richard stared at them.

Jared was… Jared. There he was. Richard didn’t think seeing him again would feel this way. He had tried for so long not to think about him. He didn’t realize he was listing forward until his father put a hand on his shoulder to keep him steady. 

Walking beside Jared was a boy. The boy. 

A few memories from his dispossession still didn't make any sense to him, and this was one of them; being in a hotel bathroom, watching Jared expel a long, writhing creature from his throat, almost dying in the process. Later, in the depressed confusion following the takeover, he received a sheaf of documents informing him that he had an offspring - a child - and the memory made even less sense to him. 

The boy looked like him. More or less. He looked like Jared too. Richard heard his mother gasp at the realization of what she was seeing. 

He’d taken a few steps towards Jared without even realizing it. He kept going. He even got halfway across the room. Once Richard stopped, Jared came over the rest of the way. 

“Richard,” Jared started, then made a sound in his throat as though he were swallowing something heavy. “I’m sorry. If I’d known you were going to be here, I would have rescheduled. I’m sorry to have bothered you.”

Richard shook his head. “Jared,” was all he could say at first. Richard felt bad to this day about not looking for Jared, after everything that had happened. He knew what the deal had been, he knew what Jared had done for him. But every memory he had of Jared was wrapped up in a memory of Sonny, and he never wanted to think about that time in his life again.

But it was _so_ good to see him.

“Don’t be sorry. It’s okay. You… look okay.”

“I am okay,” Jared agreed. “Are you okay?”

Richard shrugged. “I’m not not okay.” 

Jared nodded sagely. His eyes seemed impossibly wide, and Richard could see the joy and the sadness in them, so much they threatened to spill out. He remembered how Jared used to look at him that way all the time. Then he remembered that Jared had been looking at Sonny back then, not him. 

Richard took a glance beyond Jared. Lingering back with the boy and the luggage, was Sonny. There was no other explanation for why somebody would be wearing his face and walking around in his body, again. That fucking asshole. He wore his hair short and he kept a scruffy beard, like the Evil Mirror Universe Richard he was. 

_“Calm down Richard - you’re going to give yourself a heart attack. Yes, I’m in control of your body now. But I’ll take good care of it. You might even get it back someday.” Sonny had said into the mirror, back when Richard only thought of him as the_ other guy _, the_ puppet master _._

_Then Sonny had done some kind of breathing exercise for awhile, until his heart rate went down and he stopped panicking. Even from the very start, he had a level of control that Richard found infuriating._

_Sonny took up running, started eating healthy, and stopped drinking red bull. He did crunches and push-ups in his room. He got more sleep. He had regular sex. True to his word, Sonny took better care of Richard’s body than Richard ever did. Right up until government security agents started breaking his fingers._

Richard felt his breath coming faster. He flexed his fingers, but the fact that they were healed did nothing to dismiss the vivid memory of watching them break. 

“Are you…? Are you with him? I mean are you _with_ him? Still?” Richard asked.

Jared seemed to catch the accusation in his tone, and his eyes took on a wounded look, the same one he’d worn when he gave Richard his ring back. He swallowed hard and didn't say anything for awhile, until finally he nodded. 

“I have a son now,” Jared said, so quietly Richard almost couldn't hear him. “And Sonny and I have worked so hard to make a family for him.” He looked down. “Maybe I don't deserve that. But I think he does.” 

“Oh. So - so you just. After what he did to me? You - you just let him -?” With every stuttered word, Richard could feel his delight at seeing Jared curdling into white-hot rage. “So you're just okay fucking a cheap replica of me?” 

At the word _fucking,_ Jared visibly flinched. Richard had only guessed that was the case, and now he knew. His disgust became acute and he knew Jared could sense it - he had no reply, no defence. He seemed to shrink in shame. 

“He - he’s actually nothing like you,” Jared finally said, his eyes downcast. It did nothing to assuage Richard’s anger.

Richard's parents finally stepped forward. 

“Can we meet him? Please?” His mother begged. She was on the verge of tears too, but not for Jared. 

“Of course.” Jared nodded and put on a polite smile, wiping his eyes discreetly. He led them to their grandson. 

Richard hung back. Listening to his blood simmering in his ears, he couldn't hear their introductions. 

Nobody noticed Sonny stalking towards Richard. 

“Now you listen to me, Hendricks,” Sonny hissed, jabbing one finger into Richard’s chest. “If you've got a beef with me, you take it up with me. ‘Cuz if you ever say another word to hurt Donald again, I'm gonna find you, pull your tongue out, and shove it so far up your ass you’ll think you're the one who's about to give birth to an alien larva. You got it?”

Sonny looked him in the eye and nodded, causing Richard to nod back reflectively, transfixed by the barely contained furor he saw. 

Jared was right - Sonny was nothing like him. It wasn’t just the way his clothes fit, the way his jacket matched his shoes in a kind of cool-dad look, and his haircut and his nicely clipped nails. It was in everything from the pitch of his voice to the way he walked. The way he could articulate his anger without falling to pieces like Richard always did. He’d stolen Richard’s body and he was wearing it better than Richard could. Again.

“Sonny?” Jared called from across the room, looking worriedly toward them.

“Yeah, hon?” Sonny turned to smile at Jared, and his face changed so abruptly that Richard shivered at the uncanniness of it. “Coming right back.” 

Sonny passed a final glare to Richard, and it was like they were sharing the same head again. _Don’t mess with me, I’ll fucking cut you,_ said that look. 

Then Sonny went back to his little family. He took Jared’s hand, and even from across the room Richard could see how tightly Jared held on.

\---

_Jared_

The lights went out in the compound. 

Beside him on the bed, Sonny reached for his hand and held onto it. Everything was pitch black and deeply, eerily silent. By Jared’s estimation, he’d been here for nearly two months. This was new. 

“Tell me a memory,” Jared told Sonny.

Days and nights were long here in the compound, punctuated only by the shift from the bright fluorescents to the dim blue night bulbs. They both had developed their own exercise, gentle and limited by the space of the room, which they practiced daily to keep their bodies from breaking down. Otherwise, when they weren’t sleeping, Sonny often filled the hours with story. He had, Jared learned, a memory that surpassed the definition of eidetic, and could recall, word for word, every book Richard had ever read, every television show and movie. His retelling of classic films were particularly amusing. He did excellent impressions of voices and faces and sounds. He would literally sing and dance for Jared, just to make him smile. 

The stories Sonny told of his homeworld were Jared’s favourite, and not only because of the chance that the analysts listening to them might pick out bits of useful intel. They were always so strange. Sonny’s people shared knowledge by transferring memories. They could remember being other people, people who were long dead. The thought struck Jared as being unfathomably sad. 

“Okay,” said Sonny in the dark. “Let me think. Okay. Here’s one. I’ll tell you one of the Simple Simon memories. Everyone knows these. He was kind of like, our Shakespeare. His name wasn’t Simon obviously, but he was ah, kind of simple. He was damaged - he couldn’t absorb memories like we all do. So his parents left him in, um, this place, right after he was born. There was lots of food, but nothing else. Like, um, maybe you might call it a nutrient pool? Anyways, there was no light, no other people. His parents might have died, nobody knows. They just didn’t come back. He was trapped there until he was basically an adult. Then somebody found him and brought him out. And he like, saw the world for the first time. All of his feelings were so strong and so clear.”

It helped Jared to picture octopuses whenever Sonny talked about living in water, but Sonny also sometimes talked about having limbs and wings. His species were obligate parasites. Apparently they had existed during the rise and fall of no less than five dominant species through various planetary cataclysms. It was as if tapeworms gained sentience and the ability to control their hosts.

“So this story is Simple Simon and the Two Fruits Lesson,” began Sonny. “One day Simon was with his friend. He had this person who was assigned to look after him. I guess you could call him a social worker? Simon just called him the Friend. So the Friend gave Simon a fruit to eat. Like an apple, sort of. Simon had never had one before, and it was the best thing he'd ever tasted in his whole life. But when he ate it he found out there was this thing inside of it. Like a core. It was hard and prickly and it cut up the inside of his mouth. But he kept eating because it tasted so good, and he thought to himself ‘this is the way the world is, sometimes you have to endure a bad thing along with a good thing.’ But then the Friend said ‘no, Simon, don't eat it like that,’ and gave him another one so he could show him how to eat _around_ the core. And Simon was just so… overwhelmed that sometimes you could have a good thing without a bad thing.”

Jared waited for a little while. 

“That’s the end?”

“That’s the end. I know, it doesn’t translate well into words. But I mean, that apple he ate - it’s extinct now but we all remember what it tastes like. But it’s hard to describe that.”

“No. It really was nice.”

Jared meant it. Every word Sonny told him was like a little drip of opiate in the IV line that was keeping Jared sane. 

The lights had gone out and he knew something horrible was happening out there. He felt himself slipping into survival mode, where the world shrank down to the things he needed. 

He needed food and water. He needed air and sleep. He needed to stay safe and he needed to be sane. 

~~~

_Richard_

Jared and Danny arrived a few days before Christmas. Richard and his parents met them at the airport. Snow drifted down in fat flakes, coating the landscape and the trees in a soft blanket of white. It was perfect.

Twelve years old now, Danny told them about his latest project at school; a software design incorporating alien syntax into one of the native languages. A bit of both worlds, to ease the ongoing transition. Richard thought it was genius. 

“This kid’s gonna put me out of a job,” he joked, though he suspected it might be the truth. He was so proud. 

Danny was shy and he was brilliant. He had Jared’s eyes, and some of his patient, gentle demeanor. It was hard to believe he had any of Sonny in him at all. Richard didn’t like to think about it, the young creature inside of that human body who both was and wasn’t his son.

There was no big family do this year. It would be too hard to explain. Nobody knew the truth of Danny, for fear of his safety. But Richard’s parents were getting older, and they loved him so much, and their pleading had finally paid off. 

Jared stepped into Richard’s childhood home. The last time, it had been Sonny leading him inside. Now it was Richard. Jared looked around the place like it was haunted, but Richard felt like it was a new beginning - a fresh start. 

“You and Danny can share the guest room. I hope that’s okay.” Richard told him.

“That’s fine. That’s great,” said Jared. He looked so uncomfortable. Like all of this was about to evaporate any second. Just like the first time. Richard had the sudden urge to take Jared’s hand, or to give him a hug, but that’s what Sonny would have done. That’s what Sonny _had_ done. 

Instead Richard put his hands in his pockets. “Thanks for coming,” he said. “And bringing Danny. It means a lot to my parents.”

Jared nodded and shrugged, smiling nervously.

“It means a lot to me too,” Richard admitted. 

And there was the real smile.

The next few days were cozy bliss. They cooked and ate and talked and played games.

Late Christmas eve, Jared got a phone call. 

“Sonny? Merry Christmas!” His face slowly fell into a worried frown. He excused himself from their game of charades.

Richard followed discreetly, pretending to get more marshmallows for his hot chocolate.

“Sonny, have you been drinking?” There was a long pause. “I know,” Jared said. “I know you do.” He closed his eyes. “I’m coming home. No, _you_ listen. I’m not blaming you for anything, I just…” Jared sighed. “You don’t sound well, Sonny. I’m worried about you.”

After some discussion, Danny chose to stay for a few more days, but Jared booked a plane for that very night. Richard drove him to the airport. He parked the car and turned off the ignition. 

“You’re gonna leave at the beck and call of that asshole?” Richard finally got out. 

Jared sighed. “It’s not that easy, Richard. This is Christmas.”

“He’s a fucking _alien_ from _outer space!!_ What does he care about a human holiday? About a winter solstice or like, baby Jesus or any of that?”

“He cares because he knows what it means to me. It’s about family. I shouldn’t have left him alone.”

Richard wanted to argue but really he was stuck on the words _‘family.’_ And so he popped the trunk and let Jared get his own luggage and sat fuming while he watched Jared walk into the airport.

~~~

_Jared_

Jared’s shoulders were a mass of bruises by the time they broke through the door. By Sonny’s limp, he suspected he might have broken some of the bones in his foot. Bits of shattered ceramic lay everywhere - the remains of the toilet, which they had tried to use as a battering ram.

Sonny let Jared go first, grasping through the dark. They nearly broke themselves getting through this door, banking on the hope that the door in the next room would be open.

The next door was locked. 

“At least this one has a knob,” observed Sonny as they sank down to the floor together. He put his arm around Jared’s shoulders. Jared leaned into him.

“I remember, there are hazmat suits in here. And lockers. There might be more food. Tools we can use,” Sonny told him. He sounded so calm, so reasonable. Like if they made a plan, they had a chance. First they just needed to rest. Jared was certain Sonny was more tired than he was. Sonny had stopped eating a few days ago. He told Jared to ration it out for himself, so Jared did. 

“If I don’t make it, there are some things that I need you to remember. Five things. For our son.”

Jared still only half-believed what Sonny had told him - that they had a child out there, waiting for them on Sonny’s homeworld. But it gave him hope, so he held onto this belief as best he could.

“First thing. Number one. When you get out, find your local governing office. Tell them about me, and about what happened. Tell them you want to claim your offspring, and register him as a citizen of Earth.”

That seemed like a lot to Jared. Just the idea that the world would be different when they got out - that there might be such a thing as an alien governing office - in and of itself seemed overwhelming. But he tried his best to commit Sonny’s instruction to memory. “Find the local governor, claim him as my offspring.”

“Claim him as a citizen of Earth. That’s the most important part. Get his birth registered _here_.”

“Okay.”

“Second part. When he gets here. Ask them to provide off-world health and basics classes. As my son, it’s his right to have them. There are things he’ll need to know about himself, about his body, about my homeworld. And the basics classes will give him access to more information about, well, everything. The conglomerate. The universe. All of it.”

“Off-world health and basics classes.”

“Yes. Number three. When he gets older, when he finishes high school, get him to start sending out applications to the all-world schools. The bigger the better. After a few years in one of those, he can go anywhere. Literally anywhere. He can join the exploration teams. Go into conglomerate governance. He could come back and be president.” Jared could practically hear Sonny smiling. “The universe will be his oyster.”

“Okay,” said Jared. Although he didn’t want to burden their child with expectations that were too high, he liked the idea of being able to offer him so many possibilities. It sounded wonderful. “All-world college. Got it.”

“Number four. Ask for help from the third planet. The people of the third planet. They’ll help guide you through all of this, they’ll try to clarify anything you don’t understand. Integration is kind of their thing, it’s like, part of their religion. They’ll be around. Nobody likes them at first, they come off as kinda creepy. But you can trust them, believe me.” 

“And number five. _Do not_ ask for help from my planet. It’s… kind of Orwellian there? Really, if any of my parents or my relatives try to contact you, tell them to go fuck themselves. Because if they get their way, he’ll be stripped of his body and dropped into the military pool to get ready for the next invasion. I know they’d love to get their reproductive credit back, so it’s not in their best interests for him to live a long, fruitful life.”

Jared nodded, though he knew Sonny couldn’t see him.

“Is he safe there now?” Jared asked.

“Yeah, he’s okay for now. They can’t make any big choices for him until we’re both declared dead, and that can take years.”

Sonny made Jared repeat the instructions again, out loud, three more times, then backwards. It felt good, to think about a life beyond this place. Like looking out at the horizon that he couldn’t see right now. All he had to do was open his eyes and there it was. 

“May I kiss you?” Sonny asked. Jared let him because it reminded him of his body, here and now, and it made him feel safe and cared for.

Sonny lay a kiss against his head, breathing in the smell of his hair. It was the most intimate moment they’d had since Jared came down to be with him. Whatever lurid scenario their observers had expected hadn’t occurred.

“Are you so sure you won’t make it out?” Jared asked.

“I’m not sure. I’m just hedging. If either of us makes it, it should be you. He needs you more.”

Jared thought about raising a son alone. He knew he could do it. He’d do his best. But the prospect frightened him.

“If I do make it out,” said Sonny quietly. “I want to be close to you. At the very least I want to be a co-parent. I mean, if you want sole guardianship, I wouldn’t contest it. I just… wanted to lay it out there, you know? I wanted you to know that I’m sorry for what I did to you. And for what I did to Richard. And for what I helped do to everyone else. I’d understand if you never forgive me. I know Richard never will. But I wanted you to know that if you want, I will spend the rest of my life trying to make up for it.”

“You know that I’ve seen all the old memories, all the famous ones. I _remember_ what it’s like to fall in love. But then I came here. And I met you. And all those memories… it felt like I’d been trying to see the universe through a tiny looking glass, one atom at a time. When I met you I saw the whole thing. Every planet, every star.”

Sonny took his hand and squeezed it tight. He lowered his voice until it wasn’t much higher than a whisper. “I saw the river of life. Stretching from the first speck of dust at the creation, through all of my ancestors and all of yours. I saw my place in it. For the first time in my life, I felt important. It was so strange. You did that. If we get through this, I want to be with you for as long as you… for as long as you can stand to have me around.” 

Jared was glad he couldn’t see Sonny’s face, that Sonny could only use his words to persuade him. He was a performer, this one, that much Jared had gleaned. He had an artifice about him that Richard could never achieve. Richard was never anything less than authentic, even at his worst. But this was a point in Sonny’s favour - the less he was like Richard, the better. 

“I’ll think about it,” Jared said, and he did think about it. He thought about it until they succeeded in knocking loose the doorknob to the hallway. 

After walking the long road to the nearest town. After the hospital. After watching the news and the replays of the historic sign-over. After getting his possessions back from the military. After they walked into a hotel and his credit card still worked. After the world didn’t end. 

He didn’t think about it at all. They fell into bed. Sonny didn’t even have to ask. 

~~~

_Richard_

“Jared. Oh fuck, Jared,” Richard groaned against Jared’s collar. 

Even though Sonny called him Donald now, he would always be Jared to Richard. 

Sonny was passed out in the guest room downstairs. Jared was here with Richard in his childhood bedroom. His clothes were on the floor and his back was on the mattress, squeaking under their weight because _fuck it_ , if Sonny was even a little bit awake Richard wanted him to hear this. Let him hear it. Let him show up to the bedroom door. All night long Sonny had been drinking his mom’s spiked egg nog like it was his job, and Richard wasn’t a violent man but a hard punch in his stupid nose had been a long time coming. 

Richard put away thoughts of Sonny. He concentrated on Jared. This was their first time together, even though they’d been together so many times before. It was good. It was so good. Sonny would never be able to take that away from them.

Except.

Except when they were done and Richard went to the bathroom and looked into the mirror. 

_Sonny held up his grandpa’s ring. He looked at Richard in the mirror._

_Richard fought him. He fought with everything he had. His hand trembled ever so faintly, but Sonny kept control._

_“This is yours too, Hendricks,” Sonny told him. “I wouldn’t be feeling this if you didn’t feel it first.”_

_Richard wanted to say_ no. _It was on the tip of his tongue and he knew that Sonny knew. Just because he had feelings didn’t mean he had to act on them. That was Sonny’s choice, not his._

_“You’re a coward, Hendricks,” hissed Sonny._

And that was all Richard could hear in his head now. 

Jared, dozy and love-languid, looked up at him with adoring eyes as Richard sat down on the bed beside him. 

“I’m sorry. I think I only did that to spite Sonny,” Richard admitted. 

Jared smiled. “Maybe. I don’t mind. I don’t feel ill-used, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

~~~

_Jared_

They had a romantic dinner at Baumé, and then they went out for a walk on the terrace. Sonny offered Jared a seat on a bench. The voices and the music from the restaurant wafted in the air, in subtle harmony with noises of the wind and the night creatures. 

Sonny got down on one knee in the grass. Jared wondered if he should feel surprised. But he wasn’t surprised. He could smell this coming in the air, like a storm about to arrive.

Sonny made a sound in his throat, as though he was trying to resist crying, and for the first time in a long time Jared couldn’t tell if it was fabricated or not.

“I _know_ that you never loved me,” said Sonny. “Not the way you love Richard. But Donald, I’m so crazy about you. I think I can make you happy. I will work so hard to make you happy. For the rest of your life. So please, will you marry me?”

He took out the velvet box that Jared had seen tucked in his pocket. He offered the ring. It was a plain, solid silver.

Jared took one last long breath to think about it. He’d been thinking about it for awhile now. 

“Yes,” he said.

“ _Yes?_ ” asked Sonny.

“Yes!”

“Really?”

“Yes, really.”

Sonny fumbled with the box trying to get the ring out. The ring fell onto the bricks while the box bounced away into the grass. Sonny scrambled to grab the ring, very Richard-like, and for once Jared didn’t mind. 

Once the ring was on Jared’s finger, they both stood up, shaky, giddy, suddenly nervous. 

Sonny wrapped his arms around him. “I thought you were going to leave me,” Sonny said, his face pressed against Jared’s collar. 

“I thought so too,” Jared admitted. Right up until this very night. Danny was almost finished high school, he didn’t need an intact family as much as he had in his formative years. It had always been Jared’s plan, in the back of his mind, to leave Sonny someday. 

He wasn’t sure what had changed his mind. It was partly the speech, which Jared thought to be one of Sonny’s best. He must have been working on that for over a decade. He mused that it was perhaps the subtle reminder of Richard. 

It made him remember what his relationship with Richard _had been_ , back when Sonny was wearing Richard like a cheap suit. It had been too much, even at the time. Richard was a creature not easily satisfied. Brilliant. Exceptional. He was upright and moral and _so_ intelligent. Jared remembered being scared when he (thought he) was with Richard. Scared that this was too good to be true. He knew instinctively that Richard was too good for him. That this thing… whatever they had… was not something meant for him. 

Sonny was different. He was an unknown quantity, even after all these years. Jared would never truly trust him. But… Jared felt he understood the scope of Sonny. Sonny wasn’t a good person, not like Richard was and Jared aspired to be. But their lives together had been good. The hours they spent talking. All the little pleasantries. He cooked for Jared. He made him laugh. His touch was warm and comforting, even if Jared couldn’t fathom the thoughts that lay behind those eyes he’d stolen from Richard. 

If there was one thing he felt he knew about Sonny, it was that Sonny loved him. And now, tonight, with the wind and the city murmuring in his ears, he realized that he loved Sonny too. Impossibly but inevitably, like a dandelion growing through the crack in a sidewalk. He loved their life together. If he gave it up, it would only be to punish Sonny, which was something he wasn’t so interested in doing anymore. What would be the point now? He’d only be punishing himself as well. 

Jared decided that night. Richard’s love was something he didn’t deserve.

Sonny’s love was different. What Sonny offered, this, he could have. It was a punishment and a reward rolled up in one. And that was okay.

Jared chuckled that night while he fell asleep, sweat drying, endorphins rushing, with Sonny sex-sated in his arms. 

Second-best. A solid silver love. 

~~~

_Richard_

When Sonny showed up at his door one bright Saturday morning, Richard’s first instinct was to slam it in his face. 

Sonny lowered his sunglasses. “Hey Richie. Got a minute?” He stepped in before Richard could go through with his impulse. 

Richard backed up out of his way, then backed up some more without even realizing it. For one brief, panicky moment, he realized that he was alone in the house with Sonny, and he didn’t think anyone was close enough to hear him if he had to shout for help. 

Sonny raised his hands and rocked back on his heels. “Whoah, whoah. Calm down, Richard. It’s okay. I didn’t, you know, come to pull out your tongue and shove it up your ass.” He chuckled at his own little joke as he tucked his sunglasses in his shirt pocket.

It took a few moments for Richard’s pulse to come down. Sonny left the door open behind him and that helped. 

“What do you want?”

Sonny gave him a thin smile.

“I’m here because Danny heard back about his school applications. Provisional acceptance. From the academy on one of the hub stations. 

“Wow, really? That’s great!” 

“Yeah. We always knew he’d have your smarts, Ritchie.” Sonny smiled and put his hands in his pockets. “The provisional part though, might be tricky. They want him in for a pre-session trial. It’ll take a few weeks, give or take. And they give weight to his circumstance and his support structure. His family.” 

Sonny paused, giving him a meaningful look, but Richard couldn’t fathom what he was supposed to say to that.

“Meaning,” Sonny continued, “That they want him on Deep Space Nine for a little while, and his application looks better if his family is with him. That’s Donald, and me, and you too.The test will be a couple of weeks, and his program, if he gets in, will take about five years, Earth time.”

“You want me to come with you?” 

Sonny nodded. “Yeah.” 

Richard thought about it, he really did. Going off world. After everything that had happened, after all the reasons he had to hate the galactic conglomerate… leaving the planet to see the rest of the universe, it was still a heady prospect. 

“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea,” he finally had to conclude with a sinking feeling in his heart.

“Yeah. I thought so,” said Sonny, scratching the back of his neck. “Would it change anything if I told you I knew about you and Donald?”

“Huh?” Said Richard. “You know about…?”

“About the affair you’ve been having on and off for about three years?”

Sonny put his hands back in his pocket, leaning back, looking away, as though he were the one who had reason to be wary of Richard, and not the other way around. 

Three years now. Richard and Jared snuck off together at least once a week. They paused briefly whenever Richard started having doubts. They paused for the wedding last year, when Jared and Sonny went to Fiji for the honeymoon. They paused whenever Richard dated someone else, although that never lasted long. 

Last week, after a round of furious sex in Sonny’s bed, Richard realized that he didn’t want to pause anymore. A woman had asked him out that day, and he’d turned her down flat. While Jared had always been clear about his feelings for Richard, Richard was only just now starting to clarify his own. And he had no idea what to do about them.

“Donald told me after the first time,” Sonny said. “We’re honest with each other. It’s one of our rules.” He shrugged. “So it’s not like I’m gonna find out and get pissed off. If that’s what you’re worried about, you don’t have to be.”

“I’m not,” Richard lied, “I wasn’t worried about that.” 

“Uh huh,” said Sonny. Then he sighed. “So here it is, Richard. You don’t like me. Never have, never will. I get it. But we have a shared interest now. In fact I guess we have two.” Sonny crossed his arms and dared look up. Richard saw his inner eyelid blink, eerily, and he wondered how Jared had ever gotten used to that. 

“So…” 

So now they were here. Richard never wanted to have to share anything with Sonny ever again. And even though he knew it felt like Sonny was offering him a choice, he realized that he didn’t actually have any choice at all. 

Richard punched Sonny in his stupid fucking face. 

“Oh fuck! Ow, ow.” Sonny whined over his bleeding nose while Richard, with supreme effort, ignored the pain in his knuckles. 

Sonny pinched his nose, eyes watering, backed up nearly to the door. 

“I guess that’s a no?” 

“No. It’s a yes. Asshole.”

~~~

_Jared_

They saw the Earth on the way up. On South Rotational Station, the long bay accommodated everyone a view on the way up to the galactic launch points. The jewel blue planet seemed all the more precious for knowing there were others like it. They could go as far as they liked, but this would always be home. 

Jared stood transfixed at the window. Climate control nanites lined the major weather systems like a pencil sketch. Some places that used to be cities were a mass of green. Some places, long near-barren, bustled with habitat. Transit grids encased the planet like a cage, both overground and under. It looked wondrously, eerily human. 

He savoured forbidden thoughts of everything they had lost in the new world’s making. The roads. The languages. The art. The people disappeared. The once who would never control their bodies again. He thought about the violence that had passed over his head like a storm, leaving iron blood in the seas and the ground. 

Sonny took his hand. Richard took the other. Their son stood turned, engrossed in his tablet, his head already among the stars. 

Jared could endure, as he always did.


End file.
